


Elven Families and Alliances

by WingletBlackbird



Series: Inheritance Cycle Meta [2]
Category: The Inheritance Cycle - Christopher Paolini
Genre: Elves, Gen, Meta, Meta Essay, Politics, Worldbuilding, arya drottningu - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-17
Updated: 2021-01-17
Packaged: 2021-03-15 20:28:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 339
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28819263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WingletBlackbird/pseuds/WingletBlackbird
Summary: In Eldest we learn that elves don’t marry, and consider children to be the ultimate sign of love. How does this work in practice though? How do the different houses form alliances? Which house are the children considered to be a part of?Just some musings.
Series: Inheritance Cycle Meta [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2108511
Comments: 1
Kudos: 5





	Elven Families and Alliances

n _Eldest_ we learn that elves don’t marry, and consider children to be the ultimate sign of love. How does this work in practice though? How do the different houses form alliances? Which house are the children considered to be a part of? 

Arya is a part of house Tialdari. Unlike humans who use “son of” or “daughter of,” the elves introduce themselves as being part of houses. If two elves of different houses have a child together, which house is the child a part of? Is it matriarchal or patriarchal. (My guess is matriarchal.) 

Secondly, what about alliances between the houses? I can believe that it is possible most every child the elves have is conceived in love, but...does who your mate is matter? That is going to narrow your choices and might make love matches harder. Historically, marriages were meant to strengthen ties between different noble houses. Love did not come into it. I find it hard to believe that such considerations are immaterial to the elves.

How does the class system work in Du Weldenvarden? It seems to be quite serious. Arya threatens Eragon when he talks to her too casually on the way to Ellesmera. Islanzandi warns Orik that he needs to tread carefully because she would have killed him for being insulting were he not a guest. This suggests that noble versus commoner matters, or at least honor matters very much. The honorifics, who speaks first or doesn’t, this is a highly hierarchical society. How do elves choose their mates? Surely it cannot be just anyone they please? Could Arya really take whomever she wants as her mate? 

When elves mean every child is the ultimate sign of love, do they really mean that? Or that it is the ultimate sign of _union_? That two people are committed together...regardless of being in love or not? That they have been together long enough to think they can make this alliance work. In other words, a child is the marriage vow of the elves. 


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